Chapter 193: 193. Chapter 190: Lao Liu

193. Chapter 190: Lao Liu's Idea

Yan Mei arrived at his residence in the Great Crystal District by the second night.

Although he had only been in West Wind City for two or three days, for Yan Mei, this period had been extraordinarily rich.

From Lu Lu Renjia to controlling the entire West Wind City—it was almost unbelievable.

His father had hoped he would become a disciple of a sect in the Dao cultivation world and someday attain immortality.

Yet now he was seizing territory in a Mortal World city—would his father spit blood if he found out?

But strictly speaking, West Wind City wasn't a Mortal World city; it lay near a sect of the Dao cultivation world and attracted many Dao cultivators.

"Huan Ge, I never thought you'd take down Xue Bo. Now that Lao Liu's by my side, I guarantee West Wind City will move exactly as we intend."

Even though it defied his father's wishes, Yan Mei was exhilarated to control a city for the first time.

Lao Liu was like a fish in water—in West Wind City, it was the strongest… except for Huan Ge.

Whatever, Huan Ge never shows off in West Wind City anyway, so it being the strongest is fine.

Ding Huan pulled out a book and handed it to Yan Mei:

"Once West Wind City stabilizes, your main task is still cultivation. This is the Luo Shi Jing, the cultivation method I practice.

Take a look—if you think it's suitable, switch to the Luo Shi Jing. It's far stronger than whatever Zheng Yang Jue you're using."

"Thank you, Huan Ge," Yan Mei quickly took it.

Ding Huan didn't want his divine sense at the Qi Condensation stage to be exposed, so he hadn't carved the method onto a jade slip.

At the Qi Condensation stage, one only needs intention to read the content on a jade slip—but intention and divine sense are two different things.

To inscribe content onto a jade slip, intention won't do—it requires divine sense.

Yan Mei assumed Ding Huan's cultivation method must be extraordinary; otherwise, how could he have killed the three major bosses of West Wind City?

Ding Huan pulled out two storage bags and handed one to Lao Liu and one to Yan Mei:

"These are storage bags. Inside are some basic magical artifacts. As for spirit stones, once you control West Wind City, you'll have plenty."

Upon hearing they were storage bags, both Yan Mei and Lao Liu eagerly snatched theirs.

Caressing the storage bag, Yan Mei couldn't help sighing:

"Among those sent to the Mortal World to recruit disciples, only elders and stewards usually have storage bags—most disciples don't. I never expected to have one before even joining a sect."

Ding Huan's tone turned grave:

"Yan Mei, Lao Liu, remember what I'm saying now. First, we may not stay in West Wind City long—if I still haven't found a Foundation Establishment path after a while, I'll leave.

Second, if anyone from the Great Star Sword Dao or the Burning Star Lord's realm comes, we must leave too. As for the Double Soul Sect, they won't find us anytime soon."

"Don't worry, Huan Ge, I understand," Yan Mei had already considered this.

After informing Yan Mei and Lao Liu, Ding Huan immediately entered his room and began meditating to deduce the path to Foundation Establishment.

His room was fortified with a Level One defense array and a Level One attack array.

Mainly because he didn't want to be interrupted during the crucial moment of deduction.

…

As Ding Huan's understanding of cultivation levels deepened, he became increasingly clear that his earlier belief—thinking Foundation Establishment was possible after reaching Level Nine Gene Cultivator—was incredibly shallow.

Foundation Establishment was merely a general concept: simply put, it meant forging the foundation of cultivation—for a cultivator, forging the Dao foundation.

Just as a building's final height depends on how solid its foundation is.

Previously, Ding Huan knew the four Dao cultivation stages: refining essence into Qi, refining Qi into divine sense, refining divine sense back to emptiness, and merging emptiness with the Dao.

But he had no clear idea what each stage actually entailed.

He only knew these stages because he'd read about them in Ming and Qing dynasty storybooks.

Some were also recorded in writings by Han Chinese hermits from Earth's post-spirit-energy era.

He'd always assumed these were myths, and most of those Dao scriptures were nonsense—until he saved Lao Liu and realized immortals and gods truly existed.

The four stages—refining essence into Qi, refining Qi into divine sense, refining divine sense back to emptiness, and merging emptiness with the Dao—were real.

And on the Three Heavens Star Continent, cultivators seemed to follow these same four stages.

He was currently in the refining essence into Qi stage.

There were countless possibilities for Foundation Establishment within the refining essence into Qi stage.

For example, some cultivators forged their bones and pushed their internal strength to its peak to achieve Foundation Establishment—that was the martial artist's path.

Others connected all their meridians—the meridian-unblocking phase of refining essence into Qi—and achieved Foundation Establishment then.

Disciples of major sects not only forged their bones and completed meridian unblocking, but also refined their Qi to Qi Condensation Level Nine before beginning Foundation Establishment.

The foundation such disciples forged was vastly stronger than ordinary cultivators', with far greater potential.

Hence, disciples of major sects were far superior to hermits and family disciples.

He had no spiritual root—he had fused a gene-based spiritual root—and practiced the Luo Shi Jing.

Did he also need to first forge his bones, complete meridian unblocking, and refine his Qi to Qi Condensation Level Nine before attempting Foundation Establishment?

Leaving aside whether a hermit like him could even accomplish these steps—or whether he'd already passed the bone-forging and meridian-unblocking phases—suppose he did complete them all: would that make the strongest Foundation Establishment?

Like a building: the more solid the foundation, the taller the structure.

But…

Even if the foundation was fixed—even if it was the strongest foundation in the universe—

The height of the building built upon it still had a limit.

That limit was set by the foundation's capacity: the building could not exceed what the foundation could bear.

In other words, anyone who achieved Foundation Establishment—

Would have a ceiling waiting for them in their Dao path; once they reached that height, they'd hit their end.

At this moment, Ding Huan sank into deep conflict.

He wanted to follow in the footsteps of the ancient immortal deities of Huaxia, yet he feared that even if he forged the strongest foundation, he might still fall short of those immortal deities' heights.

Moreover, he practiced gene cultivation, fusing gene spirit roots. He had neither tempered his bones nor completed the meridian passage…

……

In the blink of an eye, ten days passed.

In just these ten short days, Xifeng City could be described as utterly transformed.

Because Ding Huan had been in seclusion, Yan Mei had expanded the city patrol guards to two thousand.

Whether inside or outside the city, the previous scenes of bullying, brawling, and arbitrary killings had vanished entirely.

Anyone doing business in Xifeng City must pay taxes and management fees.

Anyone residing in Xifeng City must also pay a portion of the management fee.

At first, most merchants could only swallow their teeth in silence, searching desperately for an escape route—once they found one, they immediately moved away.

Soon, these merchants noticed the difference.

The city patrol guards collected only these two fees; all other charges ceased to exist. These two taxes even included street sanitation cleanup.

Moreover, within Xifeng City, only the city patrol guards were permitted to collect fees—anyone else or any organization daring to charge or oppress merchants was killed on the spot.

Because business became so pleasant, customers no longer needed to tread carefully or fear being robbed in the streets.

Within just a few days, sales along Xifeng City's major streets skyrocketed.

Some organizations and alliances, having lost their revenue streams, immediately sought to mend ties with the city patrol guards.

They thought that if they could win the patrol guards' favor, they could once again walk freely down every street and grow rich with ease.

Thus, in recent times, countless gifts had been delivered to the city patrol guards—from merchants, from individuals, and mostly from the remaining groups and alliances Ding Huan had not yet eradicated.

The city patrol guards' policy was to accept everything offered.

No matter how much you sent, the patrol guards never turned it away—they accepted it all.

As a result, the patrol guards had to repurpose two empty houses to store the mountain of gifts.

Some alliances that had delivered crystal stones to the patrol guards, believing themselves now under their protection, resumed robbing customers and merchants on the streets.

Soon they discovered that whether or not they had sent gifts, no matter how much they had sent…

Anyone who violated the patrol guards' laws within Xifeng City was killed without exception.

In just a few days, more than half of Xifeng City's alliances vanished.

These people secretly cursed the patrol guards as bastards—when they delivered gifts, no matter how much, the patrol guards took it all.

But the moment they broke the law, they showed zero mercy.

Their gifts sent to the patrol guards were like meat buns thrown to a dog—gone forever.

After the initial wave of gift-giving, no one delivered anything to the patrol guards anymore; Xifeng City grew increasingly peaceful and lively.

Organizations and alliances with no way out either conducted honest business or left the city for good.

Sitting in the mayor's office, Yan Mei, watching the city's rapid improvement, patted Lao Liu with satisfaction:

"You old Lao Liu, your idea was actually quite good."

Lao Liu was immensely proud—this "take gifts but do nothing" scheme was his own invention.

Yan Mei waved to the guard at the door:

"Go bring Gu Bin here."

Compared to Lao Liu and Yan Mei, Gu Bin had been even more triumphant lately.

He commanded over a thousand city patrol guards at the city gate.

Who among them now dared not address him as "Lord Gu"?

He had never imagined that the days when he merely chewed Joy Branches, waiting passively for death, could ever turn into a reversal of fortune.

The only thing he struggled to endure was Joy Branches—the captain had strictly forbidden them, and he tried hard to suppress thoughts of them.

But sometimes, he simply couldn't hold back.

So whenever the craving became unbearable, he stabbed himself a few times.

Having grown accustomed to this life, returning to his former state would be worse than death.

Among the others, he understood Ding Huan's thoughts and methods best.

He was certain that if he dared to violate the patrol guards' rules and continue chewing Joy Branches, Ding Huan would not kill him—but he would surely expel him without hesitation.

"Lord Gu, Deputy Captain Yan requests your presence." A guard reported.

Hearing Yan Mei had summoned him, Gu Bin nearly rode his unicorn back to the mayor's office at top speed.

"Lord Gu, I'm going to enter seclusion for a while. Appoint someone to replace you. Take over my duties—don't make any mistakes."

Seeing Gu Bin return, Yan Mei stood up to give his instructions.

Ding Huan had been in seclusion for over ten days—he too must strive.

If he wasted all his time managing Xifeng City, Brother Huan would be deeply disappointed in him.

"Deputy Captain Yan, rest assured—I will carry out your orders faithfully." Gu Bin immediately saluted with the patrol guard's salute.

"Good. If you encounter anything unsolvable, seek Lao Liu. If Lao Liu can't solve it, come find me." With that, Yan Mei turned and left.

"Lao Liu, from now on I'll be relying on…"

Before Gu Bin could finish, Lao Liu rolled his monkey eyes:

"No respect—you're to call me Sixth Brother whenever Brother Huan is away."

"Yes, Sixth Brother." Gu Bin was the epitome of adaptability—calling a demon beast like Lao Liu "Sixth Brother" was nothing; back when he first joined the patrol guards, he called everyone "Brother."

(That's all for today's update, friends—goodnight!)